Praying the Passion

Fr. Donal O’Sullivan

The Eucharist is for Catholics no nuda commemoratio, no empty memorial service. It is a memoriale, in the “above-nature” sense of a memory that contains the thing remembered. Calvary is no “green hill far away”: it is the altar in my parish church, in my community chapel. When the negro-spiritual asks: “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?”, my Catholic answer is, “I am”.